My puppy is 5 months old now. I am wondering what people do for walks when its really cold outside. I am talking 0 degrees Fahrenheit but with a windchill of -30. Do you just go outside to pee/poop and then come right back inside? Or is a 10 minute walk still enjoyable to the dog then? I dont have a dog coat or anything like that for her. My last lab who just passed would go out on his own and come right back up to the door a few minutes later, but he was older. Puppies need more exercise, but I dont want to walk with her if its too cold for her!
Re: Walking when its freezing cold out. You need Lisa to answer that one! I think she walks Simba in sub zero temperatures all the time...
Re: Walking when its freezing cold out. Thanks. I am in Burlington, VT if that means anything. Its cold here in the winter, but most days you can still walk but sometimes real arctic air swings thru and it can be brutal outside. I would not mind staying indoors and skipping the walk myself!
Re: Walking when its freezing cold out. Lisa is in Canada - I think she'll tell you to wrap up and get out there! ;D ;D Although you have my sympathies, the fireside would be very tempting!
Re: Walking when its freezing cold out. I'm in north central Idaho and we've had just a few dips into the negatives this winter. when it was this cold, we just did quick trips out to potty and then back inside. We do a lot of playing inside when it's very cold outside....chase the ball down the hallway is a favorite, good vigorous tug games....and training times too to help mentally tire out our Bella who is 17 weeks. When it was super cold, Bella just didn't want to be outside much. She is fine at 20+ being outside for a while...but that really cold arctic blast stuff...she will just play inside instead. We are lucky in that we can safely play ball in the house with our long straight hallway...it works for us just fine.
Re: Walking when its freezing cold out. I live in a ski resort, albeit in Andorra - we don't have quite the same low temperatures! We had a couple of days early on this season where it was too dangerous to go outside - blizzard conditions where you couldn't see anything and the wind was too strong. Those days, I just let them out onto our terrace for toileting and tired them out with lots of training instead. I think in general it depends on the weather conditions (that sounds stupid) but you know, it can be super cold air temperature, but the sun can make it feel warmer so it's not so bad, or if it's deep snow, they jump around in it for a bit but then start showing signs that they're uncomfortable - Willow will start holding up paws like they're hurting her, and Shadow just shivers. When that happens, it's time to get warm as soon as possible. Once you've seen it happen a couple of times, you can start to gauge how long they can last in those situations. We've only had wind chill down to -25C this season (-13F) and in those temperatures, I can still do a "normal" 25 minute walk with them, unless it's deep snow, when it tends to be more like 10-15 minutes.
Re: Walking when its freezing cold out. We do go outside pretty much any day, no matter the weather, although below -30c, well, no. If we didn't we wouldn't go out much. With a puppy you do, need to be a little more careful but at 5 months your pup is probably okay. You do have to play at by ear and keep an eye on your dog, but i have found that even at the most extreme temps we can manage a short jaunt.
